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^^ First train ever arrives in the commercial hub of Hyderabad Karnataka, Gangavathi also known as the rice bowl of Karnataka. It has been a long wait 23 years of broken promises since the time of Deve Gowda. Those parts of Karnataka that were part of the Nizam's dominion is called Hyderabad Karnataka, like Bangalore, Kerala.

These are pictures of the last remaining gauge conversion project on the Southern Railway. Madurai-Usilampatti-Theni-Bodinayakanur. Bodi is at the foothills of the Cardamom hills in the Western Ghat. The old metre gauge train was the conduit by which cardamom, tea and other spices could be brought to Madurai and then transported all over India. In 2010 the metre gauge tracks were pulled up and merchants and people in the area are in great discomfort as connectivity with the rest of TN and India is impacted. Tenders were finally called in 2017 for this project to proceed. Here are pictures of track linking in Phase 1 Madurai-Usilampatti and pictures from Usilampatti to Bodi.

CRS performed an inspection of the Bhua-Ait-Parauna block sections of the Kanpur-Jhansi doubling project and gave clearance for running trains at 90kmph on the new line. With this commissioning 51km of the 206km line (CNB-JHS)will be doubled. This is a highly congested route towards Mumbai and Chennai from points in North India, Lucknow, Gorakhpur etc and has seen a massive derailment a few years ago at Pukhrayan with many deaths and injuries. This was caused by broken rails as there is little time to do renewal work because of the congestion. When EDFC is commissioned at Kanpur it will be worse. DFC in fact hops over this line near Kanpur via a rail over rail flyover. The main construction on this doubling project is a bridge over River Yamuna at Kalpi. The existing railway bridge dates from 1888 and was built by the Indian Midlands Railway. This bridge will be decommissioned when the new bridge becomes operational and will carry both double lines. The new bridge construction started in 2017 March, though the doubling project started earlier, not a single section was commissioned till the last year when Jhansi-Mustra-Parichha-Pariccha thermal plant was first commissioned 23km. This eliminated some of the detention due to coal rakes towards the thermal plant. A video of the Kalpi bridge over Yamuna river being constructed. Piers are complete and superstructure is being launched.

Second Train 18 to be rolled out this month; to sport more 'Make in India' components than first oneAlmost 130 of these engine-less, semi-high speed trains - India's fastest currently - are reportedly on anvil over the next few years

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had announced last month that the newly-launched superfast Vande Bharat Express, also known as Train 18, will soon run on three new routes, Bangalore-Mangalore, Mangalore-Hyderabad and Chennai-Mangalore.

The latest buzz is that the upcoming trainsets will boast more local components, giving a boost to the Modi government's Make in India initiative. Almost 130 of these engine-less, semi-high speed trains - India's fastest currently - are reportedly on anvil over the next few years.

In the case of the first Train 18, which rolled out of the Chennai-based Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in 2018, although the Railways tried to tap its existing Indian vendor base to keep costs low, it wasn't completely successful.

A few components, the glass windows for one, had to be imported as the Indian vendors wanted higher and assured volumes to provide better quality products, The Hindu Business Line reported.

It's noteworthy that the ICF has already been given the order to produce 44 more Train 18 sets.

Make in India: Proud moment! How Indian Railways beat China to become world's largest coach manufacturerSudhanshu Mani, former GM of the ICF who oversaw the production of Vande Bharat Express, told ZeeBiz.com that ICF has a fantastic team and it only needed to harness the enthusiasm of the team to achieve the record.

^^^ The team of Sudhanshu Mani is broken up, this is old news by now, I thought some person will post this. One team member of Team 18 (Shubhranshu, not Sudhanshu, as some of the comment writers have confused with) has been sent to RDSO, Nakhlau( thats how Cawnporiah's and Lucknowites pronounce it) and another to MCF Rae Bareilly which will be the plant that will manufacture Train 18. With manufacture of AK 203 in Amethi and MCF given the task to make Train 18, I still think they will still vote Gandhi family, feudal mindset is just too strong in eastern UP. Needs a super Bhaukali to shake these people up.

Modi was in Cawnpore two days ago and gave a speech, it was a similar speech as in Ahmedabad same quips, the Cawnpore speech had UP luminaries like Yogi on stage, the crowd reaction in Cawnpore was far different and less enthusiastic than in Ahmedabad. This is par for Choubeyland.

I am not sure what the Railway Board has in mind. MCF may have excess capacityand may be they are the ones to turn out Train 20, though the lead design agency for Train 20 is still listed as ICF, so why break and dismantle the team that designed Train 18? Suresh Prabhu had loosened the Railway Board's grip on DRM's and zonal managers, this directive is different.

In other news Babina-Basai third line is close to being commissioned. This is on the Jhansi-Bina 146km third line project on the Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Chennai and Delhi-Hyderabad trunk routes. Babina being an important Armoured Corp base sees a lot of movement. The old British era station has been moved and a new one built. Next Jhansi-Babina will be commissioned in a year. The main issue is I surmise a bridge over River Betwa(a tributary of Yamuna) near the Matatila dam. Betwa has some evil looking crocs. Poor guys get run over occasionally by trains. With Bina-Bhopal 120km already commissioned, the total track kms of third line between Delhi and Itarsi will come to 417 km (in about 2 years) with Budni-Itarsi third line 30km already commissioned or close with yard work at Hoshangabad at the last stages of completion and 141km Delhi-Mathura 3rd line commissioned some years ago. There should be additional kilometers added as Bhopal-Bhadbhada should be close to be commissioned but there is no good hard news on that. Between Bhadbhada and Budni lies some difficult terrain, tunnels and a dense forest and clearances from forest officials and Green tribunals. Here is where the famous "bulb ghat" is where one of the lines towards Delhi from Itarsi takes a bulb shaped route. This is the area where the famous Bhimbetka rock shelters lie with their dazzling pre-historic art. Rivals anything that Lascaux and Altamira has to offer, seen all of these.

Our Bureau Bengaluru | Updated on March 05, 2019 Published on March 05, 2019BEL is taking up the large-scale manufacturing and deployment of the System at its manufacturing facilities.Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a defence public sector undertaking, presented SWAGAT - the Automatic Fare Collection Gating System.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the system on Monday as part of the inaugural of Phase I of the Ahmedabad Metro.

SWAGAT is an initiative steered by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in collaboration with BEL and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) with the support of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and State Bank of India (SBI).

For hassle-free commute SWAGAT is compliant with the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) ecosystem for hassle-free commute across India. It is in keeping with the spirit of Make in India, Digital India and Skill India.

The fare collection system is the first indigenous system and the first ever outside the developed world. It can operate across all cities and all modes of transport to make ‘One Nation – One Card’ a reality.

It has also received EMVCo certification by FIME Lab, France.

“This technology is a huge step towards a cashless, digital India. This fully indigenous and interoperable System consists of: National Common Mobility Card, Automatic Fare Collection System and Validation Terminal,” said the company release.

Make in IndiaThe Automatic Fare Collection System has been designed and developed by CDAC, a R&D organization of the Ministry of Electronics & IT. The Validation Terminal and Gates have been co-designed and developed by CDAC and BEL. All the sub-systems are made in India and the IP rests with India.

BEL is taking up the large-scale manufacturing and deployment of the System at its manufacturing facilities. With this, India will join the group of very few nations who have successfully developed and deployed this technology.

Salient featuresMobility cum debit / credit card.In a phased manner, SWAGAT will be implemented across all modes of transport, be it Metro, Trains or Buses.Will work across all cities.Benefits for transport operatorsFare collection made simple, automatic, cashless and easy.Improves the efficiency of fare collection.

Another few articles about same topic with some additional information ............

One Nation, One Card introduced for multi-modal public transport in IndiaNATIONAL By Autocar Pro News Desk , 05 Mar 2019

The prime minister of India, Narendra Modi launching the One Nation, One Card for transport mobility in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on March 4, 2019. The PM was joined by Vijay Rupani, chief minister of Gujarat; Hardeep Singh Puri , minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs (I/C); Nitinbhai Patel, deputy chief minister of Gujarat and the secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Durga Shanker Mishra.

In a bid to boost seamless travel in India, prime minister Narendra Modi launched the 'One Nation, One Card' christened National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) in Ahmedabad yesterday. The first indigenously developed payment platform will enable a single card for seamless travel through different metros and other transport systems in the country.

The payment ecosystem for transport consists of NCMC Card, Sweekar (Swachalit Kiraya: Automatic Fare Collection System) and Swagat (Swachalit Gate) and is based on NCMC standards. These cards will be issued by banks on Debit/Credit/Prepaid card product platform, which will enable the customer to use this single card for payments across all segments including metro, bus, suburban railways, toll, parking, smart city and retail. The government says the stored value on the card supports offline transaction across all travel needs with minimal financial risk to involved stakeholders. The service area feature of this card also supports operator-specific applications e.g. monthly passes and season tickets.

The central government says public transport, which is extensively used across the country, is one of the most economical and convenient modes of commuting for all classes of society. While cash continues to be the most preferred mode of fare payments across public transport, there are multiple challenges associated with the system for instance, cash handling, revenue leakages and cash reconciliation among others.

To address this, various initiatives have been taken by transit operators to automate and digitise the fare collection using the Automatic Fare Collection System (AFC). The introduction of this closed loop cards issued by these operators helped digitise the fare collection to a significant extent, however the restricted usability of these payment instruments limits the digital adoption by customers.

The AFC System (gates, readers/validators, backend infrastructure) is the core of any transit operator to automate the fare collection process. The government says the major challenge associated with the AFC system implementation in India till now is the lack of an indigenous solution provider, as the systems deployed at various Metros are from foreign players. In order to avoid the vendor lock-in and create an inter operable system, there was a need to develop indigenous standards and AFC system under 'Make in India' initiative.

A committee was formed with representatives from the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Centre for Development of Advance Computing (C-DAC), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Ministry of Finance with an objective to develop the vendor-agnostic inter operable ecosystem for NCMC including indigenous AFC System and banking interface.

While NPCI was given the mandate to develop the specifications for card and terminal to support the NCMC ecosystem, CDAC was entrusted the task of finalisation of NCMC specification for AFC system including the interface with Bank server. Thereafter, BEL was roped in for making gates and reader. This is also the first indigenous payment reader which has been certified as per international standards. India joins the very few elite nations who have indigenous capacity on gate and reader production.

NCMC Ecosystem offers the value proposition for customers as they need not to carry multiple cards for different usage. Further, the quick contact less transactions will improve the seamless experience. For operators, NCMC ecosystem brings common standards for implementation without vendor lock-in.

This the government says will also help in higher digital payments penetration, savings on closed loop card lifecycle management cost and reduced operating cost. The rich data insights may be used by operators for business intelligence leading to efficient operation.

In order to showcase the entire NCMC ecosystem for digital fare collection, the complete AFC system has been deployed in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) across few stations for field trial purpose. Under this pilot, NCMC compliant gates have been deployed at various stations of DMRC and cards have been issued by multiple banks to the users.

The pilot at DMRC was inaugurated by MoHUA on January 31, 2019, which it says will help improve hardware reliability and fine tuning of the software. This will also facilitate large scale indigenous production and deployment in Indian transit system. The first-level trials have been successfully completed in collaboration with CDAC, BEL, NPCI and SBI.

NEW DELHI: The upcoming Phase-IV of Delhi Metro is likely to mark a first for the country — a made-in-India signalling system. Currently, Delhi Metro and other networks in the country depend on foreign manufacturers for, arguably, what is the most critical component of operations.

“DMRC has taken the lead in developing a signalling system. Till now, all Indian metro systems depend on international players for signalling and these companies have proprietary rights,” DMRC managing director Mangu Singh told TOI in a recent interview. “Now, the government has agreed that an indigenous signalling system is required to be developed so that we do not remain dependant on these proprietary software,” Singh said.

“DMRC is now very actively developing this signalling system with the help of C-DAC and BEL,” Singh said, adding that DMRC hopes that the system will be ready in two to three years. “If possible, Phase-IV will have our own signalling system and, then, the entire country will benefit from it,” Singh said. Singh said DMRC and other metros in the country were heavily dependent on foreign manufacturers at the moment and, for every small problem or snag, the foreign companies had to be contacted. For instance, a snag in the signalling system of Blue Line in December last year had meant that the log of the erratic software behaviour had to be sent to the Germany-based headquarters of the manufacturer, Siemens. “If the signalling system is developed indigenously, we won’t face such problems,” Singh said.

“To make even a little change in the system, you have to go to them. It’s basically a business tactic where they build proprietary software and somebody else’s item doesn’t fit into it,” Singh said, adding that even if one station has to be added to a corridor, DMRC has to reach out to the foreign company for extending the signalling system.

I wonder why this was not done in mission mode simultaneously after/during Red line of Delhi metro ???? We should thought about it a decade ago, isn't it ??? Perhaps lack of vision and political will of UPA masters caused this.

We opened up our huge MRTS market for all global companies without extracting proper amount of flesh from them.

In metro coach manufacturing i can see some manufacturing tech have been passed on to BEML by Bombardier/Mitsubishi Rotem etc due JV. but I'm not sure if we really own any IP and can tweak the designs and make our own rakes without paying them huge royalty.

Just after digging up a little bit i found those. Apologies, if posted and discussed earlier......

Press Information Bureau II Government of India II Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty AlleviationIsn't it domain of Ministry of Railways ???

26-June-2018 14:17 ISTConstitution of Committee for Standardization and Indigenization in Metro Rail Systems

Transport infrastructure is one of the most important factors for a country's progress. With rapidIndustrialization, Urbanization, Globalization and concentration of large population in urban centers, the cities and towns of the country are growing at a faster pace. To keep this faster pace, for moving people, goods and services, metro rail projects are playing a crucial role not only as a transportation solution but as a means to transform cities.

2. Today, 490 kms of metro lines are operational in 10 different cities in the country. More than 600 kms of metro rail projects are under construction in various cities. In the coming years there will be robust growth in metro rail sector. More than 350 kms of new construction will be started in the next few years as more and more cities are planning for expansion or new constructions of metro rail. In addition to metro rail network, Regional Rapid Transport System (RRTS) is also being introduced to decongest Delhi & NCR. The first phase of RRTS consists of 3 corridors, covering a total length of about 380 kms. This transit system will connect Delhi with Sonepat, Alwar and Meerut.

3. The Government of India is providing financial support in the implementation of metro rail projects by way of Equity and Subordinate Debt aswell as well as sovereign guarantee for multilateral and bilateral loans. The increasing trend of central government budget outlay provided for metro rail projects in last four years is evidence of the ever growing need for metro rail to decongest and enhance mobility in our cities.The average budget outlay of Govt. of India is likely to increase to about Rs 25,000 cr annually, apart from the investments envisaged by the state governments, private partners and ULBs.

4. Various other steps have been taken for the systematic and sustainable growth of metro rail projects in the country. The standards for rolling stock and signaling systems or the metro rail in India have been notified in 2017 after concurrence from Railway Board. The standards for rolling stock also fixes the standards of civil structures. The standards for electrical systems have been concurred by the Railway Board recently and the same will be notified soon.Various new metro systems have already started procurement of the systems as per the notified standards.The detailed specifications for the Automatic Fare Collection System and the complete eco-system based on the Rupay standard has been prepared by NPCI and C-DAC in collaboration with DMRC through a research project sanctioned by MoHUA. BEL has been tasked to manufacture the prototype of the gate trough their ownfunds. Substantial expenditure has already been incurred and the first indigenous gate based on the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) is likely to be launched in October 2018.The specifications of the most advanced signaling system in the world viz. Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) system, which was introduced by Kochi Metro Rail first in the country, is also being formulated jointly by BEL, C-DAC, DMRC, STQC through MoHUA.

5. However, there are numerous other areas for which indigenous standards need to be formulated.These are layout of metro station,platforms, signage & displays, size of tunnels, fire protection systems, disaster management systems, environment friendly and waste management systems, standards for solar panels at stations etc.

6. These indigenous standards will ensure that metro rail sub systems for all new metro projects conform to the prescribed standards thus incentivizing manufacturers to plan for long term investments in the country and set up manufacturing units. This will also bring down the cost of the metro rail constructions and operation.

7. For this purpose, a committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Sh. E. Sreedharan for Standardization and Indigenization in Metro Rail with the following members:

8. The committee is expected to submit its report in 3 months. After 3 months, based on specific task of standardization, Dr. Sreedharan could co-opt the relevant expert members for the task for a specified period of time.

Neeraj Kumar Desai, the owner of the firm that conducted the audit of the foot overbridge near the landmark Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) railway station, was produced before Mumbai's Esplanade Court on Tuesday and sent to police custody till 25 March.

Desai was arrested on Monday in connection with last week's foot over bridge collapse, that left six people dead and over 30 injured.

Police initially booked officials of the Mumbai civic body, which were responsible for its maintenance, and the Central Railway (CR) under section 304-A (Causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), but rescinded the move later.

CRS's in India are a harassed lot nowadays, line inspections all over before formal commissioning, and that too the poor fellow has to travel 75 kms on a rail trolley before the obligatory speed trial. So it is not the usual one or two block sections but huge number of block sections. Since Lemurians and Kannadigas crib Mudy is doing nothing as far as S. India, I will focus on S. India, where CRS inspections have been done in the last two weeks.

1. Makalidurga-Devarapalli (doubling and electrification) Bangalore-Hyderabad and Bangalore-Mumbai doubling CRS done on 10th March. This is between Yellahanka-Penukonda. There are videos on youtube of the CRS special. Next sections for completion is Yellahanka-Dodballapur-Makalidurga. Beyond Devarapalli in mysterious Andhra country earthworks in full swing in Devarapalli-Hindupur and Hindupur-Penukonda.

2. Tumakuru-Gubbi doubling on Bangalore-Hubli route. Now only 42 km left for doubling between Bangalore and Arsikere. Also left is the section between Tolahunse and Hubli where earthworks are going on rapidly and bridge over Tungabhadra at Harihar. Videos are available on youtube.

3. Etumanoor-Kurupanthura doubling and electrification CRS done on Trivandrum-Kochi route. Section will open after signal work and interlocking work by Vishu, April 11th or thereabouts. Now only two block sections remain for FEDL between Trivandrum and Kochi, Ettumanoor-Kottayam and Kottayam-Chingavanam(this is not easy, IR needs 3.5 hectacres land and state govt is not doing anything but blaming IR and there is a tunnel). Ettumanoor-Kottayam they have to blow up using explosives an old ROB as a new one is ready and also remove the approach road to the old ROB. So expect some line blocks and traffic dislocations in April between Kottayam and Kochi.

4. To be done March 26-29, 75 km, Tirutharaipoondi-Patukotthai gauge conversion in the Delta that gauge conversion has been languishing for 5 years at least. With this movement of food grains will ease. Sitting on a trolley for 75km,

5. I also forgot a month and a half ago Takkolam-Arakonnam inspection was done. So after 10 years this 8km line was brought to fruition and now circular EMU trains can be started, Chennai-Chingleput-Arrakonam-Chennai. Navy did not allow Railways to put up OHE on the perimeter of INS Rajali as it would obstruct the P8's from landing near Takkolam. To pay for the bypass line, it took years for DoD to deposit the money. At the last stages when the electrified line was ready, TN state highways wanted a RoB over state highway and not an LC. This imboglio was cleared, CRS happened and I believe IR might have started service. This will take a lot of load off Chennai Central. Passengers from Tambaram to Arrakonam will not have to go to Central to take a train.

Magical work has been done by an Indian company based in Hyderabad in the field of 3-phase propulsion system. This company has always believed in strong R&D work and has deployed a large group of very competent engineers for years to develop their products in the train propulsion and allied areas. Their products have proved to be more effective and reliable as compared to the systems offered by established multi-nationals in the country; the price of the propulsion system for locomotives and self-propelled vehicles has also come down over the years thanks to their presence. Fortunately, they had bagged the order for the propulsion system, including traction motors, and its complicated controls and that too through an open bidding process.

Thanks. There are some additional comments on that article. Brereton the engineer who designed the bridge(Prince Albert viaduct) over the River Tawa, went to California after his stay in India. There he designed the irrigation system which provides the water that makes California such a rich producer of vegetables and fruit. He refused to be the commissioner of this irrigation system. The tale of John Fernandez that the article refers to, is found in a compilation of Indian Railway Stories edited by Ruskin Bond. It is one among several stories in that collection, one deals with the supernatural and takes place on the old Sahibganj loop near Monghyr(Munger) and titled The Red Tail lamp. It too is taken from an old issue of the Indian States Railway magazine of long ago.

The Bagra Tawa-Sontalai block section over the Prince Albert viaduct spanning the Tawa river(a tributary of the Narmada) is still a single lined section on a route that is now fully double lined, and almost electrified. The Katni-Maihar(the place of the great sitarist Allaudin Khan who had the Maihar raja as his patron and teacher of Nikhil Bannerjee and Ravi Shankar)-Manikpur section is almost electrified, rest is all electrified. Itarsi-Jabalpur-Katni, and Manikpur-Prayagraj is electrified. A second bridge is coming up on the River Tawa and when done finally the Itarsi-Jabalpur-Katni- Prayagraj section will be electrified and fully doubled. Jules Verne refers to this route in his book Around the world in 80 days. Here is a video of a train traveling over the Tawa viaduct (prince Albert viaduct) and with a glimpse of the piers of the new bridge that will carry the double line:(new bridge can be seen at 3:12), maybe Brereton's ghost comes to inspect the construction. The earthworks/approach to the second bridge can be seen early in the video.

Magical work has been done by an Indian company based in Hyderabad in the field of 3-phase propulsion system. This company has always believed in strong R&D work and has deployed a large group of very competent engineers for years to develop their products in the train propulsion and allied areas. Their products have proved to be more effective and reliable as compared to the systems offered by established multi-nationals in the country; the price of the propulsion system for locomotives and self-propelled vehicles has also come down over the years thanks to their presence. Fortunately, they had bagged the order for the propulsion system, including traction motors, and its complicated controls and that too through an open bidding process.

vsunder wrote::rotfl: CRS's in India are a harassed lot nowadays, line inspections all over before formal commissioning, and that too the poor fellow has to travel 75 kms on a rail trolley before the obligatory speed trial. So it is not the usual one or two block sections but huge number of block sections. Since Lemurians and Kannadigas crib Mudy is doing nothing as far as S. India, I will focus on S. India, where CRS inspections have been done in the last two weeks.

A few more coming up:

The 3rd and 4th tracks between Korukkupet and Chennai beach are almost ready. A month or two, perhaps. This will ensure better clearance of Chennai port traffic (the port also gave the land for these tracks as this is a narrow chicken's neck type corridor between Beach and Royapuram), and less detention of EMUs; SR might hopefully run more frequent local trains as well. Currently, they all have to vie for space in the existing double line. After this, focus would hopefully shift to the 3rd line between Tambaram and Chengalpattu, work on which had slowed down after Suresh Prabhu moved to the Commerce ministry.

I am not sure if CRS inspection was done yet, but the central TN lines between Salem-Karur-Dindigul and Erode-Karur-Tiruchi are now electrified, thus eliminating the island diesel sections between the electrified CBE and MDU main lines.

Tiruchi-Thanjavur doubling should have been ready by now. Electrification is going on all the way to Karaikal/Nagapattinam for port traffic.

Apart from the above, work on doubling Madurai-Nagercoil (near the cape) is going on. The Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil-CAPE track is also under doubling, and this work is apparently going on at a good pace. The upcoming Enayam transshipment port is coming up near CAPE, so these doubling projects are geared toward that. Not to mention the Adani-owned Vizhinjam port near Thiruvananthapuram proper.

vsunder wrote:3. Etumanoor-Kurupanthura doubling and electrification CRS done on Trivandrum-Kochi route. Section will open after signal work and interlocking work by Vishu, April 11th or thereabouts. Now only two block sections remain for FEDL between Trivandrum and Kochi, Ettumanoor-Kottayam and Kottayam-Chingavanam(this is not easy, IR needs 3.5 hectacres land and state govt is not doing anything but blaming IR and there is a tunnel). Ettumanoor-Kottayam they have to blow up using explosives an old ROB as a new one is ready and also remove the approach road to the old ROB. So expect some line blocks and traffic dislocations in April between Kottayam and Kochi.

This is a huge achievement given the difficulties in acquiring land in KL and the general intransigence of the KL govt to prioritize this. The main KL line between Ernakulam and Trivandrum is a BG track converted from the older MG alignment, and as such has a lot of curves and goes through densely populated areas all of which have busy stations. The multiple river and water channels also add to it, requiring a lot of bridges and culverts. All of this ensures the ruling max speed is not more than 80-90kmph. Add a single line with multiple crossings, and one gets the idea - all trains except perhaps the Rajdhani become slow passenger trains on this route with office goers using express trains for their commutes. Doubling is a dire necessity and hopefully gets done by next year - apart from speeding up a few trains, it would open up some capacity to run local trains to serve the office goer traffic.

The other route via Alleppey is also under doubling, but apparently the work has been even slower.

vsunder wrote::rotfl: CRS's in India are a harassed lot nowadays, line inspections all over before formal commissioning, and that too the poor fellow has to travel 75 kms on a rail trolley before the obligatory speed trial. So it is not the usual one or two block sections but huge number of block sections. Since Lemurians and Kannadigas crib Mudy is doing nothing as far as S. India, I will focus on S. India, where CRS inspections have been done in the last two weeks.

A few more coming up:

The 3rd and 4th tracks between Korukkupet and Chennai beach are almost ready. A month or two, perhaps. This will ensure better clearance of Chennai port traffic (the port also gave the land for these tracks as this is a narrow chicken's neck type corridor between Beach and Royapuram), and less detention of EMUs; SR might hopefully run more frequent local trains as well. Currently, they all have to vie for space in the existing double line. After this, focus would hopefully shift to the 3rd line between Tambaram and Chengalpattu, work on which had slowed down after Suresh Prabhu moved to the Commerce ministry.

I am not sure if CRS inspection was done yet, but the central TN lines between Salem-Karur-Dindigul and Erode-Karur-Tiruchi are now electrified, thus eliminating the island diesel sections between the electrified CBE and MDU main lines.

Tiruchi-Thanjavur doubling should have been ready by now. Electrification is going on all the way to Karaikal/Nagapattinam for port traffic.

Apart from the above, work on doubling Madurai-Nagercoil (near the cape) is going on. The Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil-CAPE track is also under doubling, and this work is apparently going on at a good pace. The upcoming Enayam transshipment port is coming up near CAPE, so these doubling projects are geared toward that. Not to mention the Adani-owned Vizhinjam port near Thiruvananthapuram proper.

1. Salem-Karur-Dindigul and Erode-Karur-Tiruchi electrified lines were dedicated to the nation on 8th March by PM Modi on his TN trip where he also inaugurated the Chennai-Madurai Tejas.

2. Tiruchi-Thanjavur doubled line was commissioned quite a while back. Electrification is also over on Trichonopoly-Tanjore section and CRS inspection on 23rd March. So we can all light our Trichinopoly cheroots. This might be premature, as some people say from observations over the last weeks that there are places where wires have not been run completely and the announcement that CRS will come to check OHE may be premature. Scroll down and check left corner in the link below, in Tamil:

Regarding the remaining 18km Ettumanoor-Kottayam-Chingivanam doubling Ernakulam-Trivandrum section, will not happen in 3 years. File has just been sent to KL Govt. to get 3.5 hectares of land between Chingavanam-Kottayam. Currently single line passes through two tunnels. They want to have another alignment and tracks will be in a deep cut. The tunnel will be retained as a shunting neck. Between Ettumanoor and Kottayam a bridge over Meenachil river is ready( I posted a video link earlier) and the old ROB about to be demolished using explosives, the Communist cadres in KL are good at this sort of things. The earthworks are quite advanced and so in a year it will be done. But Chingavanam-Kottayam will take a long time.

Here are some videos of the CRS inspection that took place a few days ago Ettumanoor-Kuruppanthara (Kerala) Ernakulam-Trivandrum doubling:

Also pre NI and NI works have been announced with several trains cancelled to commission-Takkolam-Arakkonam route in the first two weeks of April. Circular suburban trains around Chennai have been sanctioned to start by Railway Board in June. Several trains originating at Bangalore and going towards Chennai will be severely delayed and/or canceled due to this commissioning work so avoid this travel upto April 15th.

With Takkolam-Arrakonam commissioning no more diesel lines are left in Chennai division of Southern Railway.

Also electrification and doubling works are going on fast between Londa-Miraj and Kolhapur-Miraj. Pole fixing and bracket fixing is taking place in many stretches here.